VERDICTS of accidental death were recorded for a 'devoted' mother and her daughter who died in a road traffic collision on the Heads of the Valleys road in April.

An inquest into the deaths of Stephanie Curtis, 35, and six year-old Ffion Merrifield heard that on April 28 this year, Miss Curtis was driving Ffion to an appointment at fracture clinic at Nevill Hall Hospital as she had broken her wrist a few days beforehand.

It was a route Miss Curtis drove regularly from her home in Nantyglo as she had worked in the intensive treatment unit at the hospital for ten years.

Ffion, a pupil at Coed-y-Garn Primary School, Nantyglo, died at the scene of the accident but Miss Curtis was taken to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, where she died the following day.

Miss Curtis' sister Nicola told the inquest she had not complained about her Peugeot 206 and was in good health as far as the family was concerned.

However, a post mortem carried about by pathologist Dr Joshi found Miss Curtis was in the early stages of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which was undiagnosed.

Diane Downey, the driver of a Mercedes A150 which wax in collision with Miss Curtis' Peugeot, told the inquest in a statement that she was travelling to Brynmawr with her passenger Maureen Jones from their homes in Gilwern.

Travelling along the Heads of the Valleys towards Brynmawr, passing the Red Lion pub where the road changes from two lanes into three to allow traffic travelling towards Abergavenny to overtake, they noticed Miss Curtis' car "hopping and bouncing" from side to side as it appeared to have lost control .

Mrs Downey said she put her foot on the break as Miss Curtis' car came straight at them crashing side on into her vehicle.

Mrs Downey managed to get out the car while Mrs Jones was knocked unconscious. Both women were taken were to Nevill Hall Hospital with broken limbs and other injuries.

Christopher Peer, driver of the Eddie Stobart Volvo articulated lorry which was traveling in front of Miss Curtis said as the road layout changed from two to three lanes, one car had overtaken him and he could see a blue Peugeot approaching him.

At approximately 15 to 20 feet behind the lorry, the car veered out to the centre of the road and continued to the opposite side of the carriageway before colliding with the Mercedes.

PC Stirling of Gwent Police's forensic collision investigation unit said he arrived at the scene at 12.20pm where he found "catastrophic" damage to the side of the Peugeot and to the engine bay of the Mercedes which had crumpled to half its size.

He said the weather was perfect and the road was in good condition. On the Abergavenny bound carriageway were tyre marks which were consistent with a vehicle travelling forward and sideways at the same time.

An analysis of the Miss Curtis' car found it was travelling at approximately 50mph and had no defects, therefore PC Stirling could find no reason as to why the car had travelled across the road.

He said there were 'a host' of different things that could have led to this happening, adding that perhaps it was the result of a "medical episode".

Despite finding evidence of early stages of MS, Consultant Pathologist Dr Joshi said it was difficult to speculate that this could have contributed to the collision but added that the disease can affect co-ordination and vision.

The cause of death for Miss Curtis was given as blunt force trauma and dramatic brain injury, while Ffion suffered multiple injuries including a fracture to the skull and lacerations to the brain.

Gwent Coroner David Bowen said that is was, "inconceivable that Miss Curtis would have deliberately endangered the life of her daughter'.

He said that MS may have been a contributory factor but said he was not able to say if it was the cause.

He said the lose of control of the car was unforeseen and unexpected therefore recorded a verdict of accidental death.